This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present techniques, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the discussion should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art. Likewise, in the present disclosure, where a document, act or item of knowledge is referred to or discussed, this reference or discussion is not an admission that the document, act or item of knowledge or any combination thereof was at the priority date, publicly available, known to the public, part of common general knowledge or otherwise constitutes prior art under the applicable statutory provisions; or is known to be relevant to an attempt to solve any problem with which the present disclosure is concerned.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,833 is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,288 is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,160,306 is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
A typical figure, such as an anatomical figure, an engineering figure, an architectural figure or a patent figure, contains certain elements that indicate by shape and size the nature of the object the figure is intended to depict. Often, included with these figure are alphanumeric reference characters which point to, and are placed next to, the element for which the element corresponds. A user viewing the figure typically has to read through a textual description of the figure, which may be many pages long or in a different location from the figure, to determine what element each alphanumeric reference character refers to, in order to understand the nature of the specific element, as well as the overall figure. This process may be time-consuming, expensive and error-prone.
While certain aspects of conventional technologies have been discussed to facilitate the present disclosure, no technical aspects are disclaimed. The claims may encompass one or more of the conventional technical aspects discussed herein.